Here is my promised summary on the BS EN vs IEC editions of 61326-1:1997. The differences are so inconsequential that those persons with the IEC edition have little to gain in buying the EN edition except for getting hardcopy of the DOP/DOW dates and the Annex list of normative references.
BS EN 61326-1:1997 contains the following statements on Page 2: "[...] approved by CENELEC as EN 61326-1:1997 on 1997-03-11. [...] The following dates were fixed: - latest date by which the EN has to be implemented at a national level by publication of an identical national standard or by endorsement (dop) 1997-12-01 - latest date by which the national standards conflicting with the EN have to be withdrawn (dow) 1997-12-01" You can deduce from the above dates that it took nine months from CENELEC voting approval to publishing. It is also interesting to note the DOW of 1 December 1997. Is the rumored deadline of 1 Jan 2001 automatically valid, or does this DOW require its immediate use in lieu of all other standards e.g. Generic immunity or 61131? Supposedly some kind of standard (3 year?) policy is in place to fix compliance deadlines as a result of the EN 61000-3-2 fiasco. Perhaps the OJ will set this date. --- Also found on Page 2 of the EN: "Endorsement notice" "The text of the International Standard IEC 61326-1:1997 was approved by CENELEC as a European Standard without any modification." --- The references to future additions known as Part 10, 20 and 30, found on Page 7 of the IEC edition, are not present in the EN. This should be of little concern since the latest rumor says all sections will be combined into one massive update to this stadnard; expected to appear during 1998. --- Section 2 Normative references still refers to the IEC 1000-X-X series. However, Annex ZA (normative) of the EN augments this list with the EN 61000-X-X series. No ENVs are listed. Regards, Eric Lifsey Compliance Engineer National Instruments
